The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its April orange crop forecast for the 2008-09 season, slightly reducing the total orange estimate by 400,000 boxes, to 157.6 million boxes.

John Gary Stanger, a prominent Idaho potato shipper and marketer as well as a founding partner in Wada Farms Marketing Group in Idaho Falls, ID, died April 9 at his home in Idaho Falls from bone marrow cancer. He was 70.

Born March 3, 1939, in Idaho Falls, Mr. Stanger attended the University of Idaho and graduated from Brigham Young University in 1961 with a degree in business. After graduating, Mr. Stanger joined his father in the family potato business, Idaho Bonded Produce, which by the mid-1970s had become one of the larger potato-shipping warehouses in Idaho.

Mission Produce Inc. in Oxnard, CA, "has been involved with the United convention for a number of years," said Ross Wileman, vice president of sales and marketing. "We see it as a valuable tool to get our message out with our customers and another chance to meet with those people" as well as with "potential new customers that are out there."

QUITO, ECUADOR -- George Staby thrust the temperature probe into the bucket of flowers as a hushed crowd of about 30 people encircled him. A rare smile flitted across his face a few beats later as he withdrew the instrument and read its dial.

"OK," he said. "Thirty-four degrees -- right as rain." The group let out a collective sigh and Victor Ponce, general manager at the Rosen Tantau flower farm in Quito, Ecuador, wiped a hand across his brow. He was only half- kidding.

The California cherry season is expected to get underway this year about April 24 with the earliest varieties, Brooks and Sequoia, followed shortly by Tulare.

From then through most of the month of April, those and other early varieties grown in the southern half of the San Joaquin Valley -- basically from Arvin, Maricopa and Bakersfield north to Fresno and Madera -- will constitute the first half of the season.

Monique McLaws, marketing manager for Dulcinea Farms in Ladera Ranch, CA, said that company staff will be available at the United Fresh Produce Association show April 21-25 in Las Vegas, NV, to talk with retailers and buyers about the many ways marketing support can build bottom lines.

"Every dollar is going to count. During 2009, let's hunker down and get back to basics," she told The Produce News. "The show is going to really reflect what we are doing right now with marketing support. United really helps with the changing landscape."